Roll Call

"If nominated I will not accept; if elected I will not serve," wrote General William Tecumseh Sherman to the Republican convention of 1884, in the most emphatic, most widely quoted (and misquoted)* nolo episcopari on record. Last week Minnesota's outspoken Harold Stassen as emphatically announced his determination to win the Republican nomination in 1948. The formal Stassen bid, 18 months before convention time, was as unparalleled as General Sherman's brusque withdrawal.

At a press conference in Washington, Harold Stassen laid it on the line: "I am a candidate. I intend to develop and present a definite, constructive and progressive program to our Republican Party." He would open an office in Washington; a Stassen-for-President club was already raising funds. His first goal was set: "To move the Republican Party along the path of true liberalism." All other G.O.P. hopefuls were caught off base.

Said foreign-policy expert Arthur Vandenberg: "I am not a candidate . . . and I am anticipating no campaign in my behalf." That left the door carefully ajar. To a reporter's question about a draft call, he quipped: "You mean I don't have any of Sherman's blood in me."

Visiting in Atlanta, Ohio's Senator Robert Taft first answered a newsman's question as to his candidacy with a flat no. A little later he said: "I may be and I may not."

Ohio's other hopeful, John Bricker, cried: "It's a wide-open race. Anyone can come in." California's Earl Warren was still reluctant, though the liberal, Democratic Los Angeles Daily News had begun tub-thumping on his behalf.

"Certainly Not." Then all ears were cocked for Tom Dewey. Last week he was busy entertaining 19 of the 28-man New York G.O.P. delegation to Congress, and taking an active part in the campaign to make Indiana's Charles Halleck the House Majority Leader. Was he ready to announce his candidacy? "Certainly not." Did that mean "certainly not ready?" Digging deep, Tom dredged up a slightly stale gag: "Certainly not--period."

From all the cautious sidestepping it was obvious that none of the potential candidates was anywhere near as determined as old General Sherman. It was even more obvious that none of them would agree with another, less well-known Shermanism: "If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you."

*Most recent muff: by the New York Times's erudite Arthur Krock, who last week had it "if elected I will not qualify."

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